Posted by David Williamson on February 22, 2017, 1:10 pm, in reply to "Re: 16 gauge hammer guns"
Dan the bar action side lock was a patent of Alexander Brown, the Patent date is November 27, 1883. From the Production Records, it lists 307 16 gauge hammers gun built in 1898-99. My earliest serial number for a 16 gauge is 55053, which happened to be John Houchins. It is a 6 pin that has the bar action lock and also a joint check. Sometime in 1899 around serial number 73893 (from my records) there was a major change in locks, now they are a 3 pin back action lock. So the figures of 307 would be how many 16 gauges were made with the bar action lock. For those years from what I have found out they were only made in the "F" grade. Although later they were made in Eagle (1), Trap (2), F (3,983) and Gladiator (made for Sears & Roebuck) (114). There were no hammer guns made from 1891 to sometime in 1894. No one alive seems to know the answer why. In Dr. Jim Stubbendieck's great book on L.C. Smith Production Records, he speculates that it was possible the Hunter Brothers stopped production of hammer guns and concentrated on hammerless, or that the ledger records were lost. I my research and collecting serial numbers I believe that the Hunter Brothers did stop production. In my records the last serial number I have is 29743 which I have as being made in 1890. Starting at serial number 30000 to 49999 these are all hammerless shotguns. I believe these ranges are from 1890 to 1893. Starting at serial number 50000 is the start again of hammer guns, serial number 50001 from my records, is a 5 pin bar action lock from 1894. Dr. Jim could confirm if this is correct and possibly other information.